Large scale integration of electronic circuits continues to require lower voltages as the circuit dimensions keep dropping. Circuits that generally were designed with 5V circuits on early personal computers now are fed with circuits less than 1.5V, and the trend of lowering the voltage needs continues. As the frequency of operation continues to rise and circuit density increases, power needs have risen from a few watts per device to more than 100 watts for many devices. As voltage drops and power needs increase, current must go up. Future memory currents of 100A or more will not be uncommon in servers.
When voltages were at 5V, the noise margin was typically 0.8V to ground or above 2V to power. Current voltage levels are now less than noise levels used to be, hence a requirement for better accuracy in delivery power.
Newer chip and adapter technology, including new memory technology, have more voltages, lower voltages, higher currents and more loads than previously but do not provide an improved power delivery mechanism to compensate. For example, current art senses the voltage on the power plane of the motherboard in the area of memory connectors for feedback control and does not accurately reflect the losses through the memory connectors or on the memory card or the ability to account for dynamic configuration changes.
There presently is a need for a system and method for sensing the voltage at multiple sense points.